According to breaking news from GM Freeze, Monsanto has asked the European Union to increase the permitted amount of its most widely used herbicide glyphosate in lentils. The amount of increase Monsanto wants is 100-150 times the current legal limit. This ‘crisis’ occurred because a shipment of Canadian lentils failed to meet the current glyphosate limits and was pulled from the market in the Czech Republic. The proposed higher limit is apparently close to what is already being found in the food. Both U.S. and Canadian farmers use glyphosate for weed control and also to dry their crops one to two weeks before harvest. This is not just a European problem! The foods with the high levels of glyphosate are coming from the U.S. and Canada–it’s almost certainly the same glyphosate-laden food sold to us.

In January the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) indicated that it supports Monsanto’s request. Of course it would–there have been multiple reports of conflicts of interest within EFSA. One report said that 10 of 13 members of an EFSA working group had conflicts of interest. Other reports told of a member who left EFSA and within two months began working for Swiss biotech firm Syngenta, then lobbied former colleagues on biotech crops. Higher limits for other more common crops, such as wheat and genetically engineered (GE) soybeans, have already been approved. Glyphosate is heavily used around the world on Roundup Ready genetically engineered crops and has been found in air and groundwater samples in the U.S. and other countries. Although most of the GE crops are used for animal feed, we eat their meat and milk and can, therefore, eat glyphosate residues. Glyphosate breakdown products have been found in human blood serum and urine.

Many health concerns and much environmental damage from exposure to glyphosate have already surfaced:

Glyphosate has been found to
–Cause infertility and miscarriages in farm animals
–Bind nutrients, such as manganese, copper, potassium, and zinc, in plants so they are not available to the animals and people who eat them
–Kill beneficial soil microorganisms which increases the incidence of plant disease
–Cause deformities in babies of pregnant women exposed to glyphosate
–Disrupt the endocrine system
–Spawn ‘superweeds’ resistant to the herbicide through heavy overuse